Cartoonist Unapologetic For Using Blackface In Cartoon Ugh. Ugh again. These cartoons are so awful and so ruthlessly stupid it's hard to believe anyone would employ them in service of any point whatsoever, let alone use them and apologize, let alone cover this specific incident as news.
Why link to it? Because I'll admit to being quite intrigued by marginal cartoonists working the extremes of political messaging, and those with a bit more legitimacy that bump up against that crowd, as a general phenomenon. Further, I think it's something of which people knowledgeable about cartooning should remain aware given the equivalencies that people make being more established cartoonists and people who are just participating in the latest talking-point beatdown in a way they hope will bring them attention.
Fall Employment For Hunter Gorinson And Josh Neufeld * Hunter Gorinson has been promoted to VP Marketing & Communication at Valiant Entertainment. You can read the press releases in various places like here. Valiant's an interesting company, and it seems like they've found a way to be at leat viable. It also seems they pay their freelancers well for a company of its size and market position. It further seems to me there will always be a place for people that do action-adventure superhero and superhero-adjacent comics that reflect older approaches or are simply more manageable as a linewide narrative than DC and Marvel will allow.
* the comics-maker Josh Neufeld will be teaching at SVA this year, in their cartooning department. I think that's a new gig, although I know that Neufeld has taught in the past via residency and in the short term. I would imagine that Josh might be a very good teacher: smart and patient.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* writer, SDCC veteran and comics + culture historian Mark Evanier suggests that one thing that might disrupt Comic-Con International's relationship with San Diego is the city moving in a direction with taxes and policy that favor other aspects of development, like a plan that favors the San Diego Charges.
* I guess John Ostrander is writing a Suicide Squad comic. The story to me is why John Ostrander isn't writing Suicide Squad comics all of the time. It's not like people have been killing it on that title in the various stabs at it since. It's not like he's an actor and has aged out of a role; he's a writer.
One hopes the attention brought by the award might lead to changes in both the overall policy and in this artist's specific situation, and sooner rather than later. Apparently the detention center is being shut down, but those currently held there will not be brought into Australia. One hopes for the best possible outcome in all cases.
Go, Read: The Let The Whole Goddamn Thing Crash And Burn Theory Of Comics Industry Reform Here. Things are a lot more complicated than that snark-filled essay allows -- the DM's role in fostering art comics by allowing marketplace entry with little capital + the overlap of the two systems and how that worked + the overlapping of at least three current systems and how that works + the general failure of broad-reach print media = things to think about for starters -- but there are several points in there worth considering. Asking people to game a system when the system is limited and counter-intuitive to most folks' wider goals is a sucker's game. I think what it comes down to is that the cost of servicing a hardcore audience with the majority of your resources usually means a reduction of general audience, now and forever.
Whenever there's a shift in the way comics are available, this debate comes up -- it's an ongoing battle in digital comics, really, if you think about it, although there are different measurements there and the element of not just hardcore niche markets but unexplored niche markets comes to bear as its own thing. It could just be that we don't have anyone pushing the virtues of a broad-based strategy in a way that leads to innovation in that area the way that we've had motivated people pushing in the other direction. It could be that such a plan doesn't exist. Who knows? Although seriously, if someone has a workable plan to effectively sell comics to a broad audience, please e-mail me: I'll facilitate the legwork through CXC and we'll both get rich.
I do think comics needs more readers right now, of all types. One reason why that's hard is the infrastructure of comics has dried up a bit -- there is less industry now because the money to be had can be had without that kind of apparatus. Part of what I do now is work on these things and think about them and find ways to give people the best chance to make art without harming their lives. That said, comics is the only place where trying to facilitate a 300 percent increase in a customer base over a decade would be seen as conservative by some who think millions of people are out there just waiting to read hundreds of different comics if they could only be presented to these audiences the right way. The reason why most of these debates focus on the DM now more than ever is both the way a lot of people still think of that as comics in their entirety and the way in which the DM books feel like the group of comics that is most underperforming. And so the debate continues.
Go, Read: Phil Hester Talks About His Difficult Year Here. You should read the whole thing, not my summation of it. We need to do a lot better as an industry and arts community to protect artists and comics-makers because so many of them are at risk. And sure, improving conditions involves improving sales, but not solely: it also involves efforts and endeavors where 90 percent of the profits don't go to people that are already wealthy. We need to be smart and we need to engage at all levels. It's going to be difficult. It may be impossible. We have to try.
All best wishes to Mr. Hester in moving forward; I greatly appreciate him sharing that story.
Go, Read: Dr. Anita Auerbach On The Late Richard Thompson Here. For someone with a reputation as being one of the most withdrawn, home-oriented and little seen comics makers for the bulk of his life, Richard Thompson sure brought interesting people into his orbit during those lost several years.
This Isn’t A Library: New, Notable Releases Into Comics’ Direct Market
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Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America.
I might not buy all of the works listed here. I might not buy any. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.
*****
FEB160418 MIKE MIGNOLA SCREW ON HEAD & CURIOUS OBJECTS ARTIST ED HC
I love these big books, and Mike Mignola's art is super pretty to look at packaged like this. This is some of his oddest work, so even better.
JUN162088 LUCY & ANDY NEANDERTHAL HC VOL 01 $12.99
The latest from Jeffrey Brown, and a break from maybe a decade -- I think it might be a decade -- of humorous Star Wars comics. Brown has quietly become one of the most successful alt-cartoonists of this age with those books and I hope an audience will follow him to a new series if that's what he wants to do. I'll be there.
JUN160099 ABE SAPIEN #36 $3.99 JUN160062 GROO FRAY OF THE GODS #2 $3.99 JUN160627 EAST OF WEST #29 $3.99 JUN160637 JUPITERS LEGACY VOL 2 #3 (OF 5) CVR A QUITELY (MR) $3.99 JUN160640 LAZARUS #24 (MR) $3.99 JUN160601 SAGA #37 (MR) $2.99 JUN161499 BLUBBER #3 (MR) $3.99
This is a solid week for successful mainstream genre comics of the kind that still drive a big chunk of the DM world. We'll start with the latest Mignolaverse book, as I believe that particular series is winding down. Sergio Aragones making a comic is always worth noting, and he'd be a formidable cartoonist if all we had from him is the last ten years of limited-series comic books. I'm starting to not understand what's going on in East Of West, but it has an idiosyncratic feel I appreciate in this day and age that much more than I used to. I will always read comics drawing by Frank Quitely; good lord the narrative there has slowed to a standstill, though. Lazarus and Saga are different kinds of science-fiction but share a certain confidence in their execution that has to appeal to a lot of readers. I believe the Saga is the first book in a new narrative cycle. Finally, if all you got at the comic book shop today was the latest from Gilbert Hernandez, I would have no issue with that.
FEB160016 FRANK MILLERS SIN CITY HARD GOODBYE CURATORS COLL LTD ED $275.00
This is an even more expensive version of a comic I doubted I would want to buy at the cheaper price, but I'm sure the bells & whistles are something. One interesting thing about these re-run comics in different editions is that you know going in if you're on board or not. I didn't think they would ever be read for the comics, I thought they would be stared-at only, but I was wrong.
JUN160956 BLACK PANTHER TP BOOK 01 NATION UNDER OUR FEET $16.99
Unless I'm totally wrong and they're still putting out older material to support the series launch, this is the first trade collecting the Ta-Nehisi Coates/Brian Stelfreeze/Laura Martin take on the Jack Kirby and Stan Lee character. It's not breaking any of the current molds for doing an adventure comic that adults and teenagers that want to think like adults might wish to read, but judging from the tone, reception and box-office receipts of Marvel's movies, that general take on what these characters do has a lot of room left to entertain its audiences. I liked something weird about the issues I read: the idea that Wakanda is at once this powerful, elite nation and also this chaotic mess. Extending duality metaphors to setting seems like something somewhat new, at least to me.
JUN161508 DISNEY ROSA DUCK LIBRARY HC VOL 05 RICHEST DUCK $29.99
I enjoyed this comic quite a bit in advance form, as it contains the end chapters to Rosa's Life And Times Of Scrooge McDuck, the single-greatest argument for fan reworkings of classic material. I have a lot of fun with Rosa's stories, which compliment the rich tradition of Carl Barks' works with engagement of the world that's a bit less of a time. What an oddball and intriguing career Don Rosa's had.
APR161372 AMERICATOWN HC $29.99
I remember like the idea of a science fiction story about American communities in other cities in a future where things kind of went to shit here in the old US of A. Here's the collected version, which I think means the comic is worth a second look.
MAR161025 STUDY GROUP MAGAZINE 4 DLX ED (MR) $19.95
The cool pivot point for all kids stumped as to what magazine or web site about comics is the best, the latest from Study Group contains several design and content elements taking the reader back to the 1977-1994 heyday of tabletop roleplaying games, generation one-point-five. Editors Zack Soto and Milo George are smart guys with a lot of talent to draw on in this day and not particularly stuffed with outlets for this kind of work age.
JUL161314 CANT WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT TP (MR) $19.00 JUN161436 HOW TO UNDERSTAND ISRAEL IN 60 DAYS OR LESS GN D&Q ED $19.95
Two reprints. Not sure what the publishing story is behind the Roz Chast, but that's a work worth having and if a new edition somehow encourages you to do so, it has done its job by art in comics. The Sarah Glidden book is coming out now in a new edition as an advance market assault making way for the cartoonist's latest, Rolling Blackouts. That's a traditional reprint role and a welcome one. I remember enjoying the first Glidden book.
MAR161470 REAL DEAL COMIX HC (MR) $29.99
I know this as a beloved comic for a lot of my cartoonists friends and the general category of comics brings with it some small amount of controversy because of the various portrayals in play, but I have to admit I'm way behind on comics like this generally and this title specifically. I look forward to catching up. It's certainly a striking volume.
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The full list of this week's releases, including some titles with multiple cover variations and a long, impressive list of toys and other stuff that isn't comics, can be found here. Despite this official list there's no guarantee a comic will show up in the stores as promised, or in all of the stores as opposed to just a few. Also, stores choose what they carry and don't carry so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.
To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, try this.
The above titles are listed with their Diamond order code in the first field, which may assist you in finding comics at your shop or having them order something for you they don't have in-stock. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.
If I failed to list your comic, that's because I hate you.
* Garry Trudeau does a rare interview -- they are still reasonably rare, despite his doing more of them these days -- with Michael Cavna of Comic Riffs about the subject of his latest book: Donald Trump. Greg Hunter talks to Gilbert Hernandez.
* here's a look at the general publishing trends that come out of analyzing the staggering $100M Kickstarter.com participants have put into various publishing-related projects. The virtues of neglected work making it into print are discussed.
* I wonder how I as a kid would have dealt with these Marvel teasers and the like. I think I would have liked them, but I'm not sure. This one made me laugh, I'm not sure why.
Alex Dueben's talk with McKeever at the newly-designed CBR is less an exploration of that declaration and what it portends than a genial walk through some of the highlights of McKeever's comics-making. I like that kind of interview as it kind of re-centers me with elements of the artist's career that I hadn't considered in a while, and certainly reacquaints me with its breadth.
Bundled, Tossed, Untied & Stacked: Publishing News By Tom Spurgeon
* I have very little today; I don't know if we're stuck in between announcement periods or what, but there seems to be very little in the way of "here's what's coming out" kind of news stories right this moment.
* it's always fun to look at Amazon.com for future books, as long as you don't take any of them as guaranteed and realize they'll probably come out at a different time than suggested. Here's a giant book with Ulli Lust's involvement; her previous English-translation project hit hard with a lot of comics readers here.
* here's a what I would call "mainstream-plus" version of what's coming out this Fall, which serves our purposes because readers of this site that want that information are probably well-served by having it all in one place. There's some fine comics on there, for sure.
* I don't know that I've linked to this Heidi MacDonald story at PW yet or not. I welcome the comics of all of those writers as writers, they all have their virtues, but I'm greatly disinterested in news of creative business entities in one form seeking to lay claim on territory in another. That kind of art-product news depresses the shit out of me. I hope all of the authors' comics are great.
* Mike Lynch gives us a look at the studio of the late Richard Thompson. A lot of folks were in the DC area over the weekend in order to attend a memorial service.
* not comics: Bully is running board game art, a cul-de-sac of pop culture for which I have a great deal of fondness.
* a few CR readers have sent along this lengthy Faith Erin Hicks post about emotion and pacing in comics. You can argue that shifts in approach to those two things are the big change brought to North American comics more generally by the under-40 generation's adoption of more world-comics approaches, particularly manga.
Like the X-Men during the shirtless + street clothes Warren Worthington III era, CAM has taken to guest-starring roles in other outlets and venues. Time will tell if there's an all-new, all-different physical space and corresponding revival in their future. Andrew Farago is one of comics' broadest backs in terms of energy and workload, so if just having someone plug away will do the trick, they're already where they want to go.
Go, Read: Another Editorial About The State Of Editorial Cartoons Here. I'm surprised this discussion didn't happen during the 2012 presidential election, which I thought was an absolute wasteland for editorial cartooning and basically generated nothing memorable. There are a few from this year that I think may be recalled, as well as alt-editorial work by Tom Tomorrow and whatever we're calling what Garry Trudeau does these days.
I think articles like these are onto things when they focus on how opinions are generated rather than the craft involved with the cartoonist. People go to media to be affirmed now, not informed, and that has to make a radical difference in what cartoons are made and why.
Comics By Request: People, Places In Need Of Funding By Tom Spurgeon
* you can read the final post for the successful Czap Books crowd-funder here. The Kilgore Books one is about halfway home time-wise, and it has already passed its first goal. It seems to me the micro-press people spend their money pretty well across the board, and the incentives remain just as valuable, so I hope people will consider that one.
* there's not enough of it to justify pulling out a panel in order to drive traffic there, but I'm always interested in what Art Spiegelman chooses to do.
* here's a chance to get a hold of a digital copy of a comics-focused issue of Graphis, which is not only about the history of the art form but its assemblage of opinions and works part of that history. Here's another such buy, which means I likely picked up the links in the same place -- sorry to whomever that is.
Jack Kirby, The King Of Comics, Would Have Been 99 Today
Jack Kirby, the mighty heart of the American comic book industry, would have been 99 years old today. Below, for your ruminative and reflective pleasure, is a tiny, even insignificant sample of his awesome image-making power. Long live the King.
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CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from August 20 to August 26, 2016:
1. CBR redesign kills blog version of Robot 6, one of the more popular about-comics web sites for industry members and non-mainstream fans, and a transitional one spanning the individual link blog and content-heavy group-blog eras.
2. Sandman: Overturewon the Hugo award for best graphic story in a year when the awards' legitimacy was challenged.
3. Dragon Con starts an awards program, a further sign of how the apparatus surrounding comics has become thinner and more diffuse.
Winners Of The Week James Taranto, who got 85 percent of a respectable article out of the crazy sideshow of "Scott Adams, Political Guru."
Losers Of The Week Fans of the blog format employed by Robot 6. The good news there is there's not a ton of those people, people that want information served to them that specific way as opposed to other ways you can deploy articles like that. The bad news is we don't know how reformatting news can change news, and we don't know if any of the people that may check out from that specific delivery system going the way of the dodo might have something to contribute down the road had they been served for a longer time.
Quote Of The Week
"I wish I'd started reading Batman comics long before I did, but that's mostly because (a) I've wasted a lot of time not reading Batman that could have been spent reading Batman, and (b) my goodness, there is a lot of Batman backstory to get caught up on." -- RB Kelly
Festivals Extra: Water Glass Milestone Achieved At Tom Gauld Edinburgh Book Festival Signing Here. That is some nice glassware going on there, maybe the fanciest ever provided a cartoonist at a book signing. it's my job to keep track of these things. Tom Gauld is one of comics' secret weapons and it'll be good to have him on the road this Fall in support of a new book.
* it should probably be mentioned that the closing of Robot 6 is part of a bigger presentational shake-up at CBR that likely bears watching. As I write this (Thursday late afternoon) they're getting pounded a bit for a headline style that doesn't allow for publication of everything in the headlines, which isn't a great look. I assume they'll rally. It reminds me of the SI.com changeover when everything got made to look like it needs to to maximize reading on phones, which is the direction of on-line content more generally. I think comics and on-like culture share a faith in new delivery systems that doesn't always match up to the reality of new delivery systems, with comics generally more tethered than it needs to be as a counterweight to those arguments. The moderately old ways always suffer as a result. I've thought this since the market seemed to be in such a hurry to get rid of alt-comics customers back in the '00s. I'll miss the blog format for the material Robot 6 was doing, but god help any digital strategy that has my consumption at the point of its spear.
* here are a few people paying tribute to Robot 6: Caleb Goellner, Chris Butcher, Chris Pitzer, Scott Kurtz. The reason this doesn't feel like a bigger deal is because nothing is a big deal right now; the comics industry is numb from the jawline down.
* finally, speaking of Scott Kurtz, PVPhas started a storyline revolving around Jim Davis and Garfield. Okay, that's not really hard news, but I'm from Muncie, and someone who catches up with PVP in big gulps, so I noticed it. BTW, the cider thing is a real thing.
* I'm not sure I remembered to post this on the site this week, but this American's experience at a Comiket was super-fascinating. It sounds to me like most people in comics I know might struggle with the "being one tiny element part of a huge show" at something like this. I encourage cartoonists to show their stuff as many places as they can and want.
* Art Spiegelman selects a bunch of solid one-pagers for publication on the New Yorker site. I always enjoy it when Spiegelman curates, even on something like this, mostly because I think his taste is as refined as anyone's in comics. He takes this stuff seriously, thinks about it, and makes choices. That usually means you get a strong list and likely pushback from people that see refinement as restriction.
Even if CBR publishes more work of interest under this new arrangement, the shift in presentation will be jarring. The nice thing about Robot 6 was that it was a bunch of stuff related to comics that comics-interested adults might want to see all in one place (or pull from in one go, or access via one feed, etc.). There were also a lot of good writers there over the years: Brigid Alverson's news round-ups were invaluable; all of her work for that site was good. There were a ton of others.
I have no idea what this means for comics in general. I would assume this is a choice by CBR's new owners to focus more on broader, more popular content to try and make the site maximally profitable. There's also something to these sources moving towards a focus on phone interaction at the loss of some of the crunchier aspects of sites that I like; this has certainly greatly reduced by consumption of sports-related content, not that they'll miss my old ass. The loss of Robot 6 in this form strikes me as a wider story for comics in that a lot of the standard industry tools are starting to go away. There's a point at which I think that becomes a problem for everyone.
I hope all of those writers are able to write about comics as they desire to write about comics and as close as they can come to being properly rewarded for their work. I am grateful for the writing they did, and for their engagement with the comics form. RIP.
Go, Look: Mike Pence Was Once A Not-Accomplished Cartoonist Here. They're ruthlessly ordinary, but it's nice to see some sort of artistic glimmer in any politician's eyes. I guess. I don't know. This whole year has been so weird it's hard for me to make any commentary at all. These could be a fake, there could be alarming ones, it's hard to see any of it making a dent in our understanding.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* here's a straight-faced retelling of last weekend's Wizard show in Chicago, without any mention of the gun seller exhibitor and a lot of play given the Captain American shields they give out to local heroes at every show. I held one of those shields in Columbus from some nice man that wanted people to hold it. It was very sturdy. That show is moving to even later in the summer next year, August 24-27.
* Palm Springs I've heard of. Maybe not both of them but at least one of them. That seems like you could have a pretty good convention there if someone pumped money into it.
* you can spend a few weeks this Fall learning about Daniel Clowes from the Mitchell & Webb of modern cartooning, Dave Lasky and Greg Stump. Someday I will take one of their classes...
* Marc Bernardin has some words of wisdom for what to do after you've hit a con and used it to seek work. That's always a great idea for an article. Even if you don't have work to do, I always feel like comics people zone out a bit until after New York Comic-Con.
* finally, Tom Gauld did a nice-looking program cover for thise year's Small Press Expo (SPX). That's it below.
* this is a sort-of fascinating encapsulation of Internet rhetoric in terms of how discussions over the value of art are shifted and folded and manipulated and apologized for and explained rather than than simply argued. Let me suggest it's okay to keep on disliking something when the popular pushback position presents itself. My hunch is you're very likely forming the bulk of your opinions about that thing on its merits because most people don't have the time to build a lattice-work of minor-key misassumptions when they process art and entertainment. Positioning should never matter to you when you react to art. It's okay just to react.
* Chris Sims pulls out a two-issue run of the ha-ha Justice League comic book series for examination. I remember that comic book in question mostly for how much it profited due to a massive tonal shift from what had come before. That's something you really can't get anymore when the tonal shifts come all the time and are marked by new series numbering.
* not comics: I've been voting to shut down any and all comments that aren't personally vetted since 2000 or so, based on my experiences with TCJ's messageboard when a threshold had been passed so that there were enough goofballs out there willing to spend hours fucking with other people that TCJ attracted its first serious batch. The fact that almost no one writes letters when given that option indicates this was always about performance, not dialogue.
Sandman: Overture Wins Best Graphic Story Hugo Award I read about it here, although I'm certain there are several entertaining wrap-ups focused on the cultural skirmish that dominated this year's awards as it did last year's awards. The tally there is that only two awards were given the No Award designation meaning that the bulk of the voters couldn't find anything in those categories they wanted to reward enough for it to win the category. Last year five categories saw that happen.
I'm less interested in the nature of the controversy and the pack of idiots seeking to manipulate an awards program for some sort of strained, dumbass point as I am in a community finding a way out of the traps set before them by folks manipulating the spirit of a rules set. I'm happy for the program and the people for whom it's meaningful if they've managed to stem the tide of this particular stupidity. If there are cultural battles out there worth fighting, and this isn't one of them, it's not at the awards-show level. That's like fighting inflation at a screening of The Price Is Right.
The other nominees as seen here were Invisible Republic Vol 1, The Divine, Full Frontal Nerdity and Erin Dies alone. CR extends a hearty congratulations to all the contributors to a nominated work, both in this category and the categories we skipped over to get to this one -- even if you were one of the weird ones.
The win for the collected Neil Gaiman/JH Williams III/Todd Klein comic books serie may remind people that a previous Sandman stand-alone project, The Sandman: The Dream Hunters was nominated for a Hugo back in 2000. That was back when this kind of thing was still enough of a rarity it was worth noting for the novelty of the occasion, not just the righteousness of the acknowledgment. I believe that was a broader category-nod, too, with this particular category being added in 2009. Those with longer memories may remember that a World Fantasy Award win in the early '90s for an issue of the original series helped put the title on the cultural map.
There's a lot of fun and idiosyncratic detail in this Peter Bagge interview with cartoonist JR Williams, in support of the Neat Stuff collection recently published by Fantagraphics. That's a mighty tome. Bagge is a significant figure in American comics and American comedy.
Some of the fun details include the two cartoonists in a shared apartment in Redmond, Washington, shouting out to each other during the workday. Also, Bagge seemed to collect a high number of death threats, and you can tell they amused him not at all.
Anyway, sign me up for a Peter Bagge appreciation movement. Tell me where to push. Comics and I think a lot of media would be very different if he had chosen to do something else, and I'm grateful for the breadth of his career as shown in Neat Stuff in particular.
Here. Buniak was briefly a late-period underground artist, did some work for 1980s independent publishers and was a faculty member at the Kubert School. You can read his Lambiek.net profile here. He is perhaps best known for his caricature work, or potentially the comics done with the Thunder Bunny character created by Martin Greim.
This Isn’t A Library: New, Notable Releases Into Comics’ Direct Market
*****
Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America.
I might not buy all of the works listed here. I might not buy any. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.
*****
APR160152 RG VEDA OMNIBUS TP VOL 01 (C: 0-1-2) $24.99 JUN160554 AMAZING FOREST TP $24.99
This is a really light week for comics at the comic book store from my perspective on the field, even from the viewpoint of the imaginary rich version of me that usually inhabits this column. I don't even have Jog's ability in a down week to pull out 17 European graphic novels only he has heard of. So I'd be looking to take a chance on stuff slightly outside of my interest, perhaps one of these two books. RG Veda is Clamp, and it's been a while for me and that group of creators. This is super-early work if not the first, so there'd be that interest as well. Amazing Forest is a collection of a series with a pair of writers and rotating artists that might reveal a cohesion in collection its own formatting choices might thwart.
JUN160059 USAGI YOJIMBO #157 $3.99 JUN160222 HELLBLAZER #1 $2.99 JUN160223 HELLBLAZER #1 VAR ED $2.99 JUN160635 INVINCIBLE #130 $2.99 JUN160636 ISLAND #10 $7.99 JUN160657 SHE WOLF #3 (MR) $3.99 JUN160658 SNOTGIRL #2 CVR A HUNG $2.99 JUN160659 SNOTGIRL #2 CVR B O`MALLEY $2.99 JUN160821 CIVIL WAR II ULYSSES #1 (OF 3) $4.99
This is an odd week for comic books, and will likely see me take some interesting things home. I always love some Stan Sakai, I like that inspector character, and this is the conclusion of that mini-arc. Sexy Constantine from the New 52 era I found to be one of the more hilarious characters in comics history, particularly in the context of a super team. Sexy Rebirth Constantine just sounds gross, so maybe they're doing something different with him, I don't know. I list the comic here because I like that Moritat fellow, he's an old-fashioned mainstream workhorse building up long runs here and there over the years. I'm interested in what this one looks like. Invincible is on a 15-issue countdown, and I'm hoping for at least two dozen crimson masks between this and the final issue, #144. Congratulations to Island for reaching double-digits; I think the best issues are yet to come, which is exciting for any anthology. She Wolf is about as pretty a comic as Image has made. I have yet to dive into Snotgirl but I still intend on making that happen. The Ulysses character in the Civil War II comics I've read was so boring I almost want to read this comic to see how a comic book about the character is possible. He whines and has visions, just like some of the old hippies I know that can still afford to live in Portland.
FEB160015 FRANK MILLERS SIN CITY HARD GOODBYE CURATORS COLL HC (C: 0-1 $175.00
This is the Dark Horse version of the color-photocopies of black and white original art served up at the size of the original art and accompanied by fancy extra. The Sin City stuff bores me to tears in any format -- it physically makes me cry to read these comics -- but I have to imagine that for fans this would be a great way to read this visually arresting material. I'm not sure how I feel about people knocking off this approach, but I get creators wanting to work with their primary publishers when and if they can.
JUN162058 FORGING THE PAST SETH & ART OF MEMORY HC (C: 0-1-0) $60.00
I think Seth has become a very interesting cartoonist and one that would invite a lot of intriguing commentary. I'm not sure I'd pay educational prices to experience that thinking, but if that class were available to me in college I would have enjoyed the heck out of it and then complained about my grade.
MAY161913 SENSUOUS FRAZETTA SC (RES) (MR) $24.95
I will always look at a Frank Frazetta book. The one I like is a mid-'90s exhibition catalog done in hardcover, but that was $200 even back then.
JUN160409 MARCH GN TRILOGY SLIPCASE SET $49.99
Finally, why not end the summer with this version of the March series? Once they get going, they don't stop, and when you realize that in John Lewis' view this story ends in 1964 and the immediate aftermath of that year's laws, that's a lot more interesting than a broad survey stretched across the entire '60s decade.
*****
The full list of this week's releases, including some titles with multiple cover variations and a long, impressive list of toys and other stuff that isn't comics, can be found here. Despite this official list there's no guarantee a comic will show up in the stores as promised, or in all of the stores as opposed to just a few. Also, stores choose what they carry and don't carry so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.
To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, try this.
The above titles are listed with their Diamond order code in the first field, which may assist you in finding comics at your shop or having them order something for you they don't have in-stock. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.
If I failed to list your comic, that's because I hate you.
* this article has one of those interesting clashes of nerd-culture that only I care about, and increasingly faintly: the idea that character's status as properties has an effect on how they're treated within the larger narratives these comics have. Yes indeed, a female version of Superman would not automatically be seen as a second-tier character in the world of their existence, even as a derivative.
* finally, Rich Tommaso announced a "second season" of his She-Wolf. For those of you out there not used to that term, that just means more of the comic, leading to a second trade paperback, sometimes with a narrative jump or new storyline in the manner of a television series. I love the image he chose for that announcement.
* not comics: there's a movie about Charlton coming out. I hope they confirm or deny a couple of stories but other than looking at Steve Ditko and Pat Boyette's work there, and maybe those early E-Man comics, I never think about that company much at all. I love companies that don't exist and don't make an impression a little more, though.
Go, Read: Analysis Of Scott Adams As Political Soothsayer
I'm not interested in new permutations of what the cartoonist Scott Adams has to say about the presidential campaign, because that attention eventually descended into an act of cruelty, but I liked this write-up of what he's said thus far and why: it comes across as reasonable and clear-headed even when Adams doesn't. I think the branding is interesting: why wouldn't the man who sold that many people on Dilbert and whose subject matter is office shenanigans have something to say of interest about the way a celebrity businessman candidate works his rhetoric? There is a reminder at the race-crash end of the article that the rational parts of what Adams is selling only stick around for part of the ride.
Your 2016 Comics-Category Dragon Awards Shortlisters
Locus Online has a post up pertaining to the shortlist pertaining to a new comics program, the Dragon Awards, which will be given out in conjunction with Labor Day mainstay comics show Dragon Con. I have no idea if they will be sexy awards or not, for that is the sexy con. To reflect their broad, genre-soaked base, most of these categories strike me as a breakdown of various prose approaches that pertain to imaginative fiction of the type Dragon Con fans are believed to love. That seems appropriate. Although the content of the graphic novels list strikes me as broad. Go figure.
The two comics-related categories and their shortlisted works are:
Missed It: Snapshot Of Summer’s DM Sales Here. It looks like comics fans tend to enjoy continuity-driven line-relaunches, at least enough their retailers are willing to take a bet on the material. I would also imagine that DC getting a summer boost also indicates that Marvel's last line-wide gussying-up had some real weakness in terms of energy to the top of the line, and that Civil War 2 hasn't been had a strong satellite-book effect.
The key of course is whether DC can keep a significant amount of this attention, both in terms of what they do and what the market allows. There's still a structural argument that the overall audience is much smaller than we think during these flush months, that the most desirable customer is even more rare, and that even with records being set that's more the nature of a broader market and a focused-fan's ability to make comics their only heavy-cash endeavor now that everything else has sunk to the floor a bit. So what you could have is a broad audience being served broadly, which is long-term inefficient for the kind of delivery system we have in place for that world of comics, plus a harder core comics reader that moves from thing to thing they believe "matter" in the sense of the overall experience.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up
* in case we haven't yet asked you to pay attention to Inks as it roars back to life, here you go. You should submit. Yes, you.
* not comics: casting stories are dumb, but it's worth noting the way the complaints are constructed: as the invisible hand of diversity of political correctness forcing culture around privileged people to pivot in a direction that's unsettling to them. You'll hear the same speeches driving out to get a bite to eat under a local university's photo-billboard as you do here. The fact that the ones that make the news are about pop-culture nonsense, the currency of the day, shouldn't blind us to how deep that particular lever is plunged into the soil.
* finally, Mike McPadden takes a look at comics that engage with some of the subject matter and use some of the style considerations of 1960s underground comix works.
FFF Results Post #460—Is So
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Artists Or Works -- At Least One Of Each -- Where You Know People May Disagree The Named Thing Is A Comics-Maker Or Comic, But You Either Currently Treat It That Way, Or Did For A Long Time, Whether Or Not Doing So Makes Or Made Any Sense." This is how they responded.
*****
Justin Colussy-Estes
1. Annie Vallotton
2. Citizen 13660
3. the board books of Satoshi Kitamura (Duck is Dirty, Squirrel is Hungry, Dog is Thirsty, Cat is Sleepy In particular. I think, by the transitive properties of comics, the board books featuring Boots the cat get a pass entirely due to the brilliance that is The Comic Adventures of Boots)
4. Lego instructions
5. Mayan Hieroglyphics
*****
Tom Spurgeon
1. Mo Willems
2. Tony Fitzpatrick
3. Candyland
4. Pauline Baynes' Map Of Middle Earth
5. The Monster At The End Of This Book
1. Trajan's Column
2. William Hogarth / A Rake's Progress
3. Monsters To Laugh With #1 - #3
4. View-Master story discs, especially using sculpts of cartoon characters
5. Ikea instructions
*****
Jim Wheelock
* Lynd Ward
* Frans Masereel
* Ally Sloper
* In The Night Kitchen
* Rodolphe Töpffer
*****
Rob Salkowitz
1. Tomi Ungerer
2. The Star Wars Sketchbook
3. The Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell album cover
4. The Shadow pulp magazine
5. Raymond Pettibon
1. Peter Abenheim (TV's Captain Fortune) telling stories of Captain Impossible while he drew
2. Ikea instructions
3. Pet Society game on Facebook
4. Kurt Schwitters
5. Robert Duncan's word grids
*****
Steve Herrick
1. Hieronymus Bosch
2. Garbage Pail Kids
3. The St. Louis Weatherbird
4. The Artist in His Museum by Charles Willson Peale
5. Drew Struzan
Winners Of The Week
Those Ignatz nominees. It's a happy time of the year. Also, heartbreaking. But let's concentrate on the happy people.
Loser Of The Week
Wizard. The going back and forth cuts deeply into any positive impact to be gained by deciding not to have the gun dealer at the show. That was a shitty position for them to be in, but that's what happens when you use a third-party company to fill your halls and don't review the exhibitor list the moment you get it.
Quote Of The Week
"I think Love and Rockets is mentioned more often than it is actually read." -- Gilbert Hernandez
Wizard Goes Back To Not Wanting Gun Dealer At Chicago Show The Tribune has what seems like a decent summary of Wizard's choice Thursday to return to their decision last Saturday not to have DS Arms, Inc. on the floor of their Chicago show. The convention series, bearing the name of a once-popular magazine that eventually imploded with all the grace of a drunk caught up in a blanket rolling off of a couch, had reversed this decision on Monday afternoon after learning the exhibitor would not be selling usable firearms on the floor. From their own statements and witness reports of previous events, the company would have what sounded like a replica or two for people to see and friendly people to generally talk up their retail establishment. The article also seems to confirm that a third-party entity booked the exhibitor rather than Wizard directly.
If I were the exhibitor, I'd be mad, too, about the way this developed. It seems like a firm decision could have been made. I'm not at all sad to see them go, though. I don't think there's anything legally vexing or dangerous about having a person that sells guns at a show promoting their store. Others disagree. I just think it's a bizarre and ugly thing for a pop-culture show to fold into their bosom at a time when the sale of the objects being promoted is a massively divisive and politically-charged issue with a body count. Further, gun-related crime is a specifically brutal issue for that city. I don't buy that conventions need to be maximally fun -- although you charge people to shop it better be fun -- or even that guns can't be fun (they are; it's the cost of that fun at issue), but once you get on board with certain evocations of culture, you lose me.
CBLDF: Turkish-Born, Kurdish Cartoonist Dogan Güzel Arrested In Latest Wave Of Round-Ups
There's a fine write-up here from Maren Williams about the plight facing the Kurdish cartoonist Dogan Güzel, arrested while visiting country as part of ongoing series of arrests designed to place the country in better control of its ruling elites after an unsuccessful military coup. The irony is that the cartoonist had left the country following dust-ups with authorities but was visiting when he was placed into custody.
Turkey and its prime power mover of the last several years Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have a horrible record of hectoring, harassing and otherwise cutting down cartoonists and other journalists and artists that don't speak to power in the way they feel is required. As you can read in the story, the charges go up as high as murdering those about to make political statements that don't match the goals of the current regime.
The 2016 Ignatz Award Nominees were made public by e-mail and site-posting through SPX. The longtime awards are jury-nominated and then voted on by those attending the Expo.
SPX will be held Saturday, September 17 and September 18. The Ignatzes are held the evening of the 17th. They are sponsored by the Submit program at comiXology.
Assembled, Zipped, Transferred And Downloaded: News From Digital By Tom Spurgeon
* Shaenon Garrity is going to read/experience and then write about all of Homestuck. Usually you'd say "so you won't have to," but I think the idea is that you might want to at some point yourself. I know I do.
* looks like the focus of this article is "webcomics makers recruited into other aspects of Korean entertainment culture."
* there are some notes here in a review of The Meek that note how webcomics support detail-driven fantasy comics by making everything present, and how on-line comics can go on hiatus at odd times during their overall development -- everybody is early '80s Doonesbury now.
Bundled Extra: Robert Kirkman To End Invincible Series Reported here. This was the first big hit series for Walking Dead writer Robert Kirkman (working with the very talented Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley), and I believe a still-somewhat solid performer for a series of its age and independent pedigree.
I was not on the PR cycle that got this news directly, a distribution of the story mentioned in the linked-to piece. I always paid attention to that book, though. It also has a movie-worthy plot for its first few issues (I won't spoil it for you), but unlike a lot of hit modern comics I will remember that one mostly for the way it did something a bunch of people have tried to do in comics and failed outright: a stand-alone comic set in a believable and not-at-all second-rate seeming superhero "universe."
It also had this amazing thing going with bloody faces. Like 1960s comics with gorillas. It just worked for that title.
Anyway, the book still has some time to go, and I'm sure sticking the ending will be a priority. Ending the story soon feels right to this longtime reader, and I can't imagine too many of its loyal fans will complain.
Go, Bookmark: Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Blogging On Black Panther I'm sure this is a big "duh" link for a lot of people that have likely followed the posts as they've rolled out, but I just didn't notice that the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates was doing this much writing on his Black Panther writing gig.
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* glad to see a site here and there picking up on that dumb Wizard-hosting-a-gun-dealer story. Usually I'd feel awful for the major comics guests to have their once-a-year spotlight stolen like that, but there aren't really a lot of comics guests at Wizard shows.
* Comiket ends with their usual heart-stopping attendance figures. I suppose there's a post to be written by someone that digs into how shows count their attendance, but I think it's more than clear this is the biggest one. They're bringing two new buildings into the fold for the December iteration.
* SPX heats up with an exhibitor list somewhere in there; the Ignatz noms should be out sometime today as well and will engender their own post.
Columbus College Of Art & Design (CCAD) Announces Comics Major To Begin In Fall 2017
Via Laurenn McCubbin, a vital cog in the school's move into comics over the last few years, comes word that Columbus College Of Art & Design will be offering a comics major in 2017. There's even a comic.
There are certainly other schools heading into this direction, or that have already arrived, although CCAD has a recent past festooned with comics-related activity. They're a hub and a major sponsor/partner for the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) show for whom I'm doing some work, and they've also had independent comics-related speakers and even at one point did a small, focused show there on campus. In the last couple of years, those taking a comics class have worked with established pros on stories which were then put into an anthology called Spitball.
One thing that interests me about the release is how community-oriented it is: you won't just be going to CCAD, you'll be part of a rapidly expanding Columbus comic scene. I don't know that I've ever seen an announcement that mentioned outside resources like that, but it's all true, and it is, I would imagine a selling point.
Another nice thing is that I assume between now and then others will be joining McCubbin and other comics-type teachers on staff, and it's always good when jobs open up for comics people.
Your Danish Cartoons Hangover Update Ad Infinitum
* Bulgaria will be extraditing Mourad Hamyd back to France. He's accused of trying to joining elements of ISIS in Syria. Hamyd's sister was married to the late Charlie Hebdo gunman Cherif Kouachi. Hamyd was initially accused of being a third gunman but was later cleared to the satisfaction of authorities.
* this strikes me as an awful headline: making equivalent political speech and actual crime. Yikes.
* here's another short article about the latest Charlie Hebdo cover image that offends. This strikes me as Trumpian bluster more than it does Swiftian satire, but keen minds may disagree. It doesn't look like there's been a progression in the narrative here. I hope it remains that way.
* here's an article from a couple of weeks back about the creative struggles enjoyed by the X-Men wing of the Marvel Universe. Those books strike me as fairly unreadable, too. I suspect there ended up being too many plotlines and a lot of fan-service in terms of which ones were adhered to. The overriding narrative eventually collapsed on itself. It's difficult to reboot after 17 reboots. The grafting on of X-Men story elements to the Inhumans characters just made things feel that much more over and done with. Someone will eventually right that ship; there are a lot of strong core elements there via the work of Kirby, Lee, Thomas, Roth, Adams, Claremont, Byrne, Cockrum, Morrison, Quitely, Casey and several others.
* finally, John R. Parker would like to talk to you about how Chris Samnee is taking inspiration from Alex Toth's comics on his work with the Black Widow character created by Lee, Rico and Heck.
Wizard Reverses Position: Gun Seller Remains At Wizard Show; Dealer Not Selling Real Guns
After deciding over the weekend not to have gun seller DS Arms, Inc. remain on their exhibitor list for the forthcoming Wizard World show in Chicago, the convention company reversed its decision at some undetermined point on Monday afternoon. The exhibitor will remain because they will not be selling or have on hand any actual firearms. They will use their exhibitor space in what sounds like the way described by CR reader Jon Ira Thomas in the article reachable through the first link as what they've done at past shows: dispensing a number of freebies about their wares, showing off some non-firing models at the booth and generally recruiting business, not selling guns in any way at the pop-culture show.
How did Wizard get here? It looks like this happened by Wizard filling some of their exhibitor space through a third-party mechanism and not knowing how that exhibitor planned to use the space until potential attendees made public their worries. That Wizard has to fill booth space for what was their longtime signature show -- and likely still is, all things considered -- and North America's arguable #2 convention for a few years, that's news in and of itself. As a few CR have pointed out via e-mail, this may signal a continuation of recent policy where Wizard has quietly moved into any and all areas in which in there is some perceived money to be made: this year's big push was into music performances.
I still think it's a bad look, straight up. It doesn't speak well to the show's ability to sustain its identity on the floor. While the gun dealer has every right to want to exhibit and to my mind seemed an unlikely candidate to make the show unsafe even if selling their wares, Chicago's recent history with gun violence makes this an even odder choice right now. Suggesting that gun ownership is another part of the pop-culture landscape makes comics look like a bottom-feeding enterprise at a point in the medium's history it should be seen as everything but.
It may not even be a Chicago thing. Rumors have it the company also plans to sell through Atlanta's Dragon Con show. I can hardly wait for a whole row of weapons sellers, franchising opportunities and on-line colleges. There was a time when the best place to find comics might have been some of the giant flea markets out there. That still seems like a long time ago, and a faraway place. Is it?
Here. It's a lengthy interview. Trevor Von Eeden is well-suited to speak out on a variety of issues that have faced mainstream comics over the last 40 years, from a variety of perspective as his career has developed. My memory is that he's done a few extensive interviews, which has to be a boon for historians that will eventually deal with this artist or that period.
* Fantagraphics announced far and wide late last week that Ellen Forney will be doing a book through them in 2017 called Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life. Forney's last book discussing her mental health history, Marbles, was a significant work for the veteran creator.
* good news: Mike Mignola, Gary Gianni and Dave Stewart will be the creators behind a new Hellboy graphic novel to be released in 2017. I always like staring at Gary Gianni's art.
* bad news: folks at the site Bleeding Coolcatch social media interaction indicating DC's newest iteration of Prez will have a short-story right around election time but is otherwise done. It was well-reviewed. I liked the first issue okay although I sort of wondered about the infrastructure that would allow it to find an audience.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * Todd Klein on Black Hammer #1.
* not comics: this story from over the weekend interested me for a couple of reasons. It's probably advanced since the weekend in some way -- a clarification or a statement or just further argument over what happened. The two things that interest me are 1) the idea that fan entitlement drives aberrant behavior on-line that pushes creators away from that kind of engagement and 2) the idea that this isn't what's going on at all, and how that counter-argument is expressed. I think these are gray-area issues in terms of what's happening and why, and that a dozen factor probably play a part in each case, with maybe 50 percent overlap between them. What's clear, though, is that it keeps happening, and our culture is serving up a potent cocktail of "get me the fuck off of this platform" even if it's made up of different ingredients every time out.
* I keep forgetting to put a link up to this original art page Scott Dunbier posted from IDW's future Fantastic Four book. That's going to be come book. Kirby's not just interesting for the end result, but work from that title in that period gets into three distinct art approaches that the King used.
* due to the Post's new limited-article firewall, I will send you to a post about an article running some of Richard Thompson's concept work for the movie Inside Out. Sorry about that.
Wizard On DS Arms Inc.: “We Have Elected To Not Retain Them As An Exhibitor At The Event”
Wizard has disinvited gun dealer DS Arms, Inc. from their forthcoming show in Rosemont, Illinois. Attentive fans had noted the exhibitor's name and were surprised to see a booth given over to that kind of merchant. Safety concerns, public perception concerns (given Chicago intense recent history with brutal gun violence) and concerns for the nature of the show were all expressed.
Wizard spokesperson Jerry Milani wrote CR on Saturday night to explain the situation and say the exhibitor will not be retained. Milani's statement in full:
"A scheduled exhibitor at our upcoming Wizard World Comic Con Chicago event, one which had been included through a third-party partner, was to have displayed and presented imitation, costume Star Wars and other movie/comic type weaponry. But, as it has come to our attention that the organization markets and sells actual, real-life weapons, we have elected to not retain them as an exhibitor at the event.
"Wizard World Comic Cons celebrate many facets of pop culture and entertainment. The vast majority of these are suitable for all ages; some are intended solely for adults. We are committed to providing a wide variety of entertainment options within our venue and associated businesses, with safety a top priority.
"Any fan interested in expressing concerns with any of our policies is invited to contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)"
I believe that's the same decision most people would have made, although I suppose whether or not Wizard had enough of a grasp on its exhibiting partners is up for debate. Filling your show through a third-party mechanism is likely to lead to some exhibitors you just don't know as well as others drawn directly from the comics, gaming and pop-culture industries.
Whether or not safety concerns would have been a real thing and to what extent is something one could also debate more generally, or have that argument migrate to non-gun weaponry sometimes available on a show floor.
One CR reader pointed out that based on past experience with DS Arms' set-up at a non-comics convention, he believed it wasn't quite the arm-sales scenario imagined on their behalf. "Had a table next to these guys at Flashback Weekend in Rosemont show before last," wrote John Ira Thomas. "The owner is a fan who uses the table as a rally point for attending the show (they said they also set up at an adult entertainment show as well). They displayed a secured and deactivated AR-15 and gave away piles of gun-themed gimmes. They had no intention of selling anything at the show." That alone doesn't make them a desirable exhibiting partner for Wizard, but it's nice to have a clearer picture of what is being avoided as both show and exhibitor move forward in their other business.
As cons and festivals remain popular enough for organizers to try, what exhibitors related to comics will be invited in -- particularly for wide-reach mainstream shows -- is likely to be an interest and concern to the fans and fellow exhibitors asked to take some ownership of each event. This includes scrutiny for people that might be selling something odd or dangerous but will extend to those simply advocating for a hobby or a political position or attendance at a school or promoting a military career. There's a chance we'll be seeing this kind of show-to-show blowback and discussion a few times a year over now. Let's hope everything remains in the realm of words.
Update: They're having the dealer on the floor in the way that Mr. Thomas describes above: no real guns. They did not send a correction my way, which means Wizard's official statements will not get any meager benefit of the doubt they were given at this site from now on. There's a reason you credit someone in the headline as making a statement, and it's not that you trust them.
Charlie Hebdo Magazine Back In The News For Riss Cover Featuring Naked Muslims, Resulting In Threats
There's a decent, succinct summary of concerns about the latest Charlie Hebdo cover here. The cover being questioned is by Riss and apparently relates to the Burkini ban. Dozens of threats were received on-line.
An assault on the Charlie Hebdo offices on January 7, 2015, believed to be related to the magazine's publication on its cover and within its pages of satirical images of Muhammed, led to the death of 11 people working there and one close by. Eleven others in the building were injured. Five more people were killed in wider attacks linked to the initial massacre.
At the time I'm posting this I can't find the image, but I'm sure it's everywhere by the time you're seeing this roll out on your screen. I pray the story has ended rather than progressed by the time I'm able to get back on the site, but I'm not completely optimistic.
Update: Found a copy of the cover image and it's here if you want to look at it and not feel like you're negotiating providing hits to whatever political site has it up. I don't see the specifics of the image being at issue beyond their role as provocation, not yet. The story may progress that way, which will likely call for a different approach.)
Nahed Hattar Jailed In Jordan For Anti-Daesh Cartoon
The Jordanian cartoonist Nahed Hattar has apparently turned himself into police after a warrant was issued for his arrest. The warrant was the result of Hattar making a cartoon on Facebook (his page is I think here) which skewered Daesh/ISIS in a number of indelicate, potentially offensive ways.
One thing that's interesting to me about this news story is that Hattar is what my Mom would call a "piece of work." The writer of the article does a good job summarizing the half-dozen or so ways that the cartoonist's positions place him at odds with different aspects of Jordan's citizenry, and in some cases big chunks of the world that may be outraged at his treatment.
Reading that part of the linked-to article, it strikes me this is one of the difficulties of letting our own sense of moral authority take the place of principle when weighing in on issues like free speech. When you're in a western country with a reasonably strong continuity year to year in terms of values and political controversies, at least concerning who is on what side, it's a lot easier to point and go thumbs-up/thumbs-down than it is when you're dealing with people in places so chaotic they may break a dozen ways across a shattered mirror worth of notions, ideas and policies.
Denver-based Kilgore Books & Comics has everything you want in a crowd-funded publishing slate: some history (they've been publishing comics since Noah Van Sciver started Blammo), good taste across the board (arguably so, of course, the only person who publishes everything you want and like is you), and a focus (floppies, to facilitate young cartoonists starting old and give slightly older ones the chance to do a small project between large projects).
I think all the covers look nice. I hope you'll consider it, especially if you're a fan of the old-school alt-comics format, like I am.
* not comics: this isn't the most focused article, but there's something from which comics may learn in the notion that on-line media is consumed in a way that exacerbates a problem with on-line media: it feels awful to consume too much of it. We're still at the initial gorging stage with on-line media, and as more and more of us push away, even for a moment, the way we re-engage is going to be everything. I talked to a bunch of people this summer who admitted they hadn't downloaded a comic in a while after a sustained period of doing so.
* here's a charity auction to raise money for a scholarship bearing beloved editor Mark Gruenwald's name. I remember when I wrote his obituary for the Comics Journal, Kim Thompson came and read it over my shoulder and talked about how they came up in fandom together and that they both ended up in the best jobs possible for each guy.
* not comics: the audience that does not hold. We'll see if just getting past the PR hurdle of looking like a hit with that first weekend and the solid money that movie will make is enough to avoid a post-Amazing Spider-Man 2 meltdown and reconsideration of direction. I suspect the Wonder Woman and Justice League films are far enough down this path with enough reason to think each may perform well that there will be no second-guessing. The photos here make me laugh because it's hard to tell the movies apart. I don't have quite that problem with Marvel's movies, and those characters have a much tighter provenance.
FFF Results Post #459—Not Comics
On Friday, CR readers were asked to "Name Five Favorite Non-Comics Works By Comics Creators." This is how they responded.
*****
Stephen Herrick
1. Jack Kirby's costume designs for a stage production of Julius Caesar
2. Ornate stationary by Kristyna Baczynski
3. Dave Stevens' art for the Mighty Men and Monster Maker kit
4. Dan Zettwoch's illustrations for museum exhibit "A Walk in 1875 St. Louis" at the Missouri History Museum
5. "The Lynda Barry Experience" audio recording
*****
Jim Wheelock
1. Jack Kirby's concept designs for the unmade Lord Of Light film/amusement park.
2. Moebius' designs and storyboards for Alejandro Jodorowsky's unmade version of Dune.
3. Wally Wood's FIREBALL XL5 lunchbox art.
4. John Severin's hand drawn artwork on the envelopes of his personal letters.
5. Joost Swarte's architectural design for the De Toneelschuur Theatre building in Haarlem, The Netherlands.
*****
Sean Willey
1. Gainsbourg directed by Joann Sfar
2. Vinyl toys Designed by Jim Woodring
3. Pee-Wee Playhouse set designs by Gary Panter
4. "To be or not to be" by Ryan North
5. Penguin Classics Covers by a slew of great comic artists
*****
Michael G. Pfefferkorn
1. Otto Binder's novel "Adam Link -- Robot"
2. Wally Wood's illustrations for Galaxy Magazine
3. William Stout's paintings of prehistoric creatures
4. Gerard Jones' indispensable "Men of Tomorrow"
5. Bruce Timm's work on Justice League Unlimited
* Jack Davis' Slim Jim ads
* Mary Fleener's Leaving my Body 3
* Jack Kirby's Lord of Light/Argo artwork.
* Dave McKean's Bill Bruford's Earthworks album covers.
* Alan Moore's Writing for Comics.
1. Carl Barks' nudes
2. Mickey Spillane's I, The Jury (remember he was a comics writer first)
3. Frank Miller's cover for Harlan Ellison's Mefisto In Onyx
4. Vaughn Bode's cover and interior illos for R.A. Lafferty's Space Chanty
5. Steve Gerber's article on using comic books as visual inspiration in Super 8 Filmmaker
*****
Sean Kleefeld
1. The Sinking of the Lusitania by Winsor McCay
2. Jack Kirby's designs for villains and background characters for Thundarr the Barbarian
3. MirrorMask by Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman
4. Ron Cobb's Star Wars concept designs
5. Doug TenNapel's Earthworm Jim
*****
Ken Eppstein
1. Peter Bagge & Eric Reynolds: 4 Track Mind Single (as members of the Action Suits)
2. Michael Neno: Paintings of Underwater Cats
3. John Byrne: the novel Fear Book
4. Mort Todd: Back from the Grave Album Cover for Crypt Records
5. Bill Gaines: The greatest congressional testimony ever!
1. Jack Davis -- Art for movie poster -- The Long Goodbye
2. Neal Adams - Art for poster -- Grand Funk Railroad -- All The Girls In The World Beware
3. Wallace Wood -- Art for Alka-Seltzer ad -- Stomachs Get Even At Night
4. Greg Irons -- Art for Grunt Records recording artists poster -- Black Kangaroo/Peter Kaukonen
5. Victor Moscoso -- art for radio station KSAN placed on San Francisco MUNI buses in 1971 on a 13 panel loop that went around the bus!
*****
Robert Kirby
1. Edward Gorey's costumes and sets for the stage version of Dracula ('70s)
2. John Porcellino's Top 40 lists in King Cat Comics and Stories
3. Jordan Crane's 30 postcard set
4. The Lynda Barry Experience CD (esp the "House of the Rising Sun" monologue)
5. Aline Kominsky-Crumb's editorials in her issues of Weirdo
*****
William Burns
* News from ME blog by Mark Evanier
* 25000 Years of Erotic Freedom by Alan Moore
* Riders of the Dead novel by Dan Abnett
* Coraline by Neil Gaiman
* Gertie the Dinosaur film by Winsor McKay
1. Guy Peellaert's film posters for Paris, Texas (and the rest)
2. Brendan McCarthy's designs for the animated series ReBoot.
3. Elliot Maggin's prose novel Last Son of Krypton
4. Duncan Fegredo's storyboards for Darren Aronofsky's Noah
5. Rob Liefeld's Levis commercial
*****
Chris Arrant
1. Alex Toth's Hanna-Barbera animation designs
2. Warren Ellis's Gun Machine prose novel
3. Dave Johnson's sketchbooks
4. Mike Mignola's designs for Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire movie
5. Ash Wood's toy designs
*****
Danny Ceballos
1. Jim Woodring's Nibbus Maximus
2. Felt Pilotes vinyl singles by John Porcellino (and bandmates)
3. illustrations for Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist by Moebius
4. Pee Wee's Playhouse Colorforms Play Set by Gary Panter
5. Linda Barry's rejected (?!) cover illustration for Penguin Classics Little Women
*****
Jones
1. The Great Destroyer, Zak Sally (as drummer for Low)
2. Chip Zdarsky's Before Watchmen pitch
3. Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki et al
4. Fury Road, Brendan McCarthy et al
5. Francois Schuiten's metro design
*****
Steve Replogle
1. Edward Gorey's stage design for Dracula
2. The Merry Marvel Marching Society record
3. Michael Kaluta's costume designs for Starstruck
4. Barry Windsor-Smith's Moon and Star Bookmarks
5. Richard Corben sculptures
1.) Charles Burns set designs for the Mark Morris ballet Hard Nut
2.) Moebius' design work for Luc Besson's film The 5th Element
3.) Guy Colwell's murals
4.) Edward Gorey's costume and set design for a theater production of Dracula
5.) Crockett Johnson's mathematical paintings
CR Week In Review The top comics-related news stories from August 6 to August 12, 2016:
1. Although the organizers didn't respond to our reach-out on Friday afternoon, Wizard World Chicago apparently has a gun dealer listed as an exhibitor. This set off a variety of reactions: everything from how healthy that show is to spread its purview that far wide of its pop-culture roots to whether or not a danger is represented by having those guns on the floor to the potential offense of offering up guns in a show with a city's name on it that's been wrecked by gun violence, particularly over the last 36 months.
2. Huge surge of interest in March as Book Three hits in an election season with a lot of political back and forth over issues raised during the Civil Rights era causes publishers and printers to scramble to catch up.
3. Newspaper advocacy groups respond to criticism of the industry's decline on a comedy show by making broad complaints and not really engaging with the specific criticisms reported. The idea of out-reporting the story never occurs to anyone. If there was ever a point at which people should consider giving up on a course correction for newspapers, a longtime huge market for comics, that fetid reaction might be it.
Winners Of The Week
The March guys, sure, but also long-form political journalism in comics form. With so much of immediate covering play-by-play type political back and forth, comics pieces like this one provide some 101 context and background that almost no one else is doing.
Loser Of The Week Larry Pickering. "Lion in winter prone to biting everyone" maybe isn't the best public profile.
Quote Of The Week
"I'm not sure anyone had even heard of Portland back then." -- Diana Schutz
By Request Extra: Jeremy Eaton Etsy Sale Seattle-based Jeremy Eaton is one of those artists who lives a pared-down life in order to facilitate making art above and beyond all other pursuits. I pay extra attention to his cycle of sales events for that reason; there's always at a slight need-based element to them based simply on how he's set things up. Plus he sells his art really cheap, so it's a good value to consumers. I own three or four myself and frequently gift them.
Assembled, Zipped, Transferred And Downloaded: News From Digital By Tom Spurgeon
* the worst webcomic in the world, perhaps. It certainly sounds and looks awful. I don't understand the whole mentality in question there, although I know there are people out there who believe that point of view and express those things in that way. It just boggles my mind that anyone could land there conclusion-wise as a way to process why life is the way it is, particularly after, well, any other option is considered. I do apologize for the jpeg quality here.
* here is a little more press material about the latest funding mechanism to fall into place in support of material created on-line.
* finally: on the This Is Fine image. Wait, that's a second KC Green article. Oh well, it's not the worst thing I've done with this inadequate, recurring, focused post.
* glad to hear that the fine writer and great gentleman of comics James Vance survived a harrowing last two years. That guy writes a grocery list and it's in that voice.
* this level of kind words from the famously tough Pat Oliphant is still remarkable 12 years after the fact. I agree with the general sentiment that Richard Thompson was a great cartoonist before Cul De Sac.
* finally, Neda Ulaby profiles Kim Yale, a creator on key issues of Suicide Squad and generally much missed. It can be difficult to recognize key contributors to crossover media properties; this effort is appreciated.
Go, Read: Short, Oral History Of Dark Horse Comics I'm saving this one for coffee, but I like article-sized oral histories and Dark Horse is an interesting company. There's a tension in a lot of oral histories I see between people wanting to put a best face forward and people just processing through something about their intersection with the subject of the history that intrigues me. The way people orient themselves within an oral history is just as important as the content, and the best stuff is almost always the details and the nuances of expressing them.
Go, Read: Dale Lazarov On The Future Of Queer Comics Here. I am super glad there's more and more writing on this aspect of comics and I hope I can keep up and drive traffic in the direction of that material. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
The Never-Ending, Four-Color Festival: Shows And Events
By Tom Spurgeon
* Roq la Rue, RIP. That was a very comics-friendly gallery back when that was a super-rare thing.
* for no particular reason I can ascertain, I failed to list Safari Festival in my you-should-go guide until I was shamed into doing it yesterday. You should check it out; looks like a lot of fun.
* The Beathas a short piece up testing the wind for "Comic-Con will move" drama, and has to wet their finger to detect anything of importance. I think the show is settled into there in a way that it wouldn't work the same way anywhere else. Vegas seems a non-option because of the heat and because cost-conscious fans would have to actively resist the city's many inducements to spend, and my hunch is that people in LA would rather have that sense of a sabbatical and take meetings in San Diego than take them up in LA. It's expensive now, but maybe that's just our expensive show.
* SPX has added Sophie Goldstein, Roger Langridge and Steffen Kverneland. This is added to a stellar line-up of Daniel Clowes, Lisa Hanawalt, Tom Gauld, Aimé de Jongh, Pascal Girard, Cyril Pedrosa, Jeffrey Brown, Trina Robbins, Charles Burns, Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez, Sarah Glidden, Carol Tyler, Jim Woodring, Drew Friedman, Ed Piskor and Joe Sacco.
* not comics: the tone-deaf quality and general stupidity of this posturing response by a newspaper advocacy group to a critical but comedic segment of John Oliver's HBO show should discourage anyone that is hoping for newspapers to correct their tailspin for the sake of their being a traditional home for comics. This guy doesn't even engage the substance of the criticisms, and makes it sound like Oliver was randomly making fun of things. The lack of in-depth engagement would terrify me if my paper were giving this organization money.
* not comics: drama. It's tough to be a person in the world.
Go, Read: Larry Pickering As Lion In Late, Late Winter; Biting The Hell Out Of Everyone Now
I don't know what to make of this feature-length profile of cancer-suffering, one-time dean of Australian political cartoonists Larry Pickering, but it's the one I'll carry with me all day. The headline really sticks, too.
My first thought is that you pretty much have to have a culture for editorial cartooning as grand as Australia's for someone to transform into this kind of opinion-thrower and not just be pounded into obscurity. Pickering's later cartoons make Pat Oliphant's look like Tom Wilson's, except Pickering never had those kind of art chops (Oliphant's, I mean, not Wilson's). At the same time, I do have that privileged perspective where I'm still sort of glad to see someone making art out of what they believe, even if my reaction to each resulting work is to wince and grind my teeth.
For a current hook, you can see in the linked-to article Pickering's response to Bill Leak's offensive cartoon from a little while back. It's about what you'd expect.
Go, Read: Becky Cloonan On The Struggles And Joys Of Sustaining A Freelance Arts Career
Becky Cloonan writes passionately here about the ups and downs of sustaining a career past that first "I've made it" summit where just doing what you're doing affords the semblance of a living.
We need people writing about their approach to vocation that like Cloonan's piece admits it's hard and that massages into reality that even established pros don't feel like they've made it or can take a minute's rest. Our dialogue about the money to be made in comics has been weird for about 40 years, and many argue it's done a disservice to those coming up now by suggesting that a sustainable living is achievable for far less than it actually takes.
This Isn’t A Library: New, Notable Releases Into Comics’ Direct Market
*****
Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America.
I might not buy all of the works listed here. I might not buy any. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.
*****
MAR161024 STUDY GROUP MAGAZINE 4 (MR) $15.95
There was very little on the new releases list that popped for me. When I was a kid, and the shelves kind of dried up late in the summer, I would buy back issues of The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes for one dollar off of my shop's side-shelf. It was a way to stay in the world of comics that I loved a little longer than I might be able to just buying another comics. I liked the Study Group's magazine efforts; they use good writers and the publication always looks nice. It sort of reminds me of one of the magazines not the Journal that popped up in the mid-1990s, like Crash or Destroy All Comics. It works if you understand the nuances in taste and it works if you see it as part of a wave.
JUN160203 ALL STAR BATMAN #1 $4.99 JUN160575 BLACK MONDAY MURDERS #1 (MR) $4.99 APR161201 SEC ONE SHOT (MR) $5.00 JUN160841 VISION #10 $3.99 JUN160867 BLACK PANTHER #5 $3.99
I think we're safely in the period of John Romita Jr.'s career where he's no longer the gold standard and maybe not even a fan favorite. That was a good run he had. I still find him an illustrator of interest, much in the same way that Gil Kane was late in his own Hall Of Fame comics-making career. Black Monday Murders is Jonathan Hickman, an interesting writer interested in how information is communicated on the page. SEC (I'm guessing the "One-Shot" is description or subtitle; forgive me if I'm wrong) is Sarah Ferrick and the latest from Marc Arsenault's Alternative Comics distribution umbrella. I'd pick that one up for sure. The last two comics are the current serialized darlings at the House Of Ideas. Black Panther becomes more assured with every issue, which totally makes sense.
APR160065 HELLBOY AND THE BPRD 1953 TP $19.99
I buy these in serial form, which is kind of dumb given how many of them come out all of the time. I remember enjoying the stories in here, particularly the stand-alones. The longer story seemed find but a little relaxed in terms of narrative. At this point you're either buying this stuff or you're not. I don't think anything in here would change minds in either camp.
APR160829 INJECTION TP VOL 02 (MR) $14.99
I enjoy these comics in serial form when I read them. It's become more relaxed-seeming and thus more fun as the issues have moved into the higher single digits. I'm a sucker for the idea of cranky, outsized, talented people solve all of the world's problems while also contributing to them.
JUN161204 HELLBOUND LIFESTYLE GN $10.00
This is Sec are the random, purebred alt-comics, and the two comics about which I know very, very little. This will be the one I get if my comic store is carrying it on Wednesday.; The is Retrofit rather than Alternative, though.
MAY161635 MARIE ANTOINETTE PHANTOM QUEEN HC $18.99
Annie Goetzinger makes comics that are the equivalent of the remaining prestige dramas on US network television: they are graceful and well-executed and sensible. I love looking at them, though, and I always appreciate seeing which artists interest venerable publisher NBM.
JUN162057 COMICS OF HERGE WHEN THE LINES ARE NOT SO CLEAR HC $60.00
Let's end on that other way I used to extend my weekly comics wallow: books about comics. This one is academically priced for sure, but Hergé is one of the perennial subjects of interest still, although that might change with one more generation.
*****
The full list of this week's releases, including some titles with multiple cover variations and a long, impressive list of toys and other stuff that isn't comics, can be found here. Despite this official list there's no guarantee a comic will show up in the stores as promised, or in all of the stores as opposed to just a few. Also, stores choose what they carry and don't carry so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.
To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, try this.
The above titles are listed with their Diamond order code in the first field, which may assist you in finding comics at your shop or having them order something for you they don't have in-stock. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.
If I failed to list your comic, that's because I hate you.
Random Comics News Story Round-Up * Johanna Draper Carlson on Private Beach.
* not comics: it's good that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby get credit for their creation and very discouraging when they don't or when it's not easy for them to get this simple acknowledgment. Although, correct me if I'm wrong, they had Steve Rogers as a Lower East Side kid, not from Brooklyn.
* this week we celebrate the start of a great creative run by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and a handful of others that transformed pop culture. I'm always hesitant to observe the anniversary of that first issue because I think the sustained run was what changed things, not a thunderclap of a single book. In the same way, I'm reluctant to afford Marvel conceptual power as opposed to what was executed on the page. These are old-man issues, though. That's a fun comic.
* I keep forgetting to write this story, and it's a big one, one that should make some end-of-year lists if people are interested in up-and-coming cartoonists and cartooning scenes more generally: the end of Intruder, the flagship publication of Comics In Seattle, Generation Two. There were a lot of good comics in there and I will miss the publication.
* when Sir Alfred No. 3 sells out -- and it's likely to happen soon -- it may not come back. That's a special comic, and there being only that many copies will enhance its reputation over time.
* I don't cover many of the exclusivity deals signed by talent at the mainstream company. It's a quieter option than it used to be, and the exceptions in individual contracts made it hard to figure what was exclusive and what wasn't. Still, Aaron Kuder doing a bunch of work for Marvel strikes me as worth noting because his work for DC was strong and artists that stand out are a rare thing right now because of how the market values skill sets that are more easily transferable into Hollywood. It strikes me that Kuder might have already been working for Marvel; if that's the case, this was necessary PR.
* Dave Sim talks about the inspiration the actress Susan George at age 19 playing 16 provided his Jaka character, and a parallel relationship in his own life.
Go, Read: Todd Klein On Gaspar Saladino
Todd Klein is an extremely talented letterer, one of the great specialty craftspersons in comics history. He also takes seriously being a witness to history, particularly where it intersects with the places he's worked, the people he's met and the craft he's plied. It's no surprise then that his obituary for the late Gaspar Saladino is worth reading, and I hope you will.
Bundled Extra: March Book Three Sees Surge In Attention, Order Explosion To Match
Nate Powell describes a bit of it here. I'm not sure what's changed except maybe we've reached a saturation point with context in terms of attention to these issues. I'm grateful, though. I thought volume one was fine, but with number two they really locked into some of that material in a dramatic, harrowing way.
Go, Read: Garry Trudeau On Donald Trump Book Here. We're going to see a lot of Garry Trudeau in the next several weeks as the presidential campaign continues, although at least one of my politically-minded friends thinks that the life has already gone out of this contest. (My hunch is we're due one more twist.)
One thing that's interesting about Garry Trudeau being back in the spotlight for being so early on Donald Trump is that for a lot of Doonesbury purists, Trudeau's shift in the 1980s to a greater engagement with real-world political figures within the strip is a significant factor in how the strip developed over time. For me, any entry point into Trudeau's work is welcome as long as it has us paying attention to what is a strong, all-time achievement in comics that gets forgotten when we make those appraisals.
Man Loses Box Of Valuable Comics At Tampa Bay Convention; Comics Insured, May Have Been Stolen
The local media source Tampa Bay Times has unpacked the story of a dealer losing track of a box of valuable comics at Tampa Bay Comic Con here. The possibility for this being foul play is assumed and asserted. Let's hope the comics are returned and that dealers out there see a long-term interest in not facilitating the sale of any of these books.
If nothing else, this is one of those stories that makes you stop and realize just how much material of value some of these guys are moving around. The fact that box is insured is also worth noting, and something I hadn't thought of before.
Comics By Request: People, Places In Need Of Funding By Tom Spurgeon
* the crowd-funder to reprint Trina Robbins' adaptation of Sax Rohmer's Dope should be right near its goal or just on the other side as you read this. That sounds like a fun project to have all in one place. I remember reading parts of it in Eclipse Magazine at my dad's house on Lake Wawasee because I am that old and someplace up there had great distribution.
* I totally missed this Leif Peng-sponsored Kickstarter. I would think that people should support whatever project Leif Peng wants to give them.
* here's a crowdfunder that is well along in terms of raising the money it needs and then some. The author was nice enough to send over some PR last week and it's ending soon. Phil Foglio recommends the project right there on the page.
* not comics: our condolences to the cartoonist David Lasky on the passing of his father. The late Mr. Lasky was the subject of his son's comic book, Boom Boom #2, some 23 years ago. Someone please collect Dave's work, already!
Loser Of The Week
Leak. I don't have much of an opinion on the original cartoon, to be honest. I think if people want to complain about cartoons they can; that's the price of publishing them. Attacking their elitism, classism and racism is on the table. Where I break with most people who agree with me on that is that I don't feel like a cartoon that has shitty, even abominable elements is necessarily out of bounds or aberrant. I know how weird that sounds. I tend to favor people over-expressing themselves over those that self-censor, even when they're potentially very wrong to do the former or very kind in doing the latter. Granted, that certainly is an opinion in which I'm supported by my immense privilege in all aspects of life. One thing in which I believe without complication is that complaining about sanctimonious tweeters is a bad look, period and forever. Thus this honor goes to Leak.
Quote Of The Week
"He was always somewhat enigmatic -- then and now -- playing things close to his vest: he had a sophisticated technique, a unique stylization, and knew precisely how his work should be presented; there was an exacting aesthetic certitude to every aspect of his work." -- Gary Groth on the late John Fantucchio.
* I'm not sure I can all the way follow the details of this partnership between LINE Webtoon and Patreon, but basically any permutation of the Patreon model is interesting to me.
* longtime writer-about-comics Augie De Blieck Jr. has launched a new site, Pipeline Comics. I'll be spending a big chunk of time over there this weekend.
* Todd Klein has added three chapter to his 1980s DC Comics history: two, three, four.
* I did not know that cartoonists and comics-makers had a policy about autographs, but I guess there's a good reason, proven over time, for these people to want to protect themselves given the weirdnesses of the collectibles market.
* I don't know what to think of this interview with Jim Lee and Dan DiDio. There's such a self-serving spin to industry interviews anymore that it seems to me even while reading them that the truth is frequently pushed in this direction or that one. I don't have the contextual mastery to catch what they're doing here; everything is so vague. My one takeaway is that Vertigo sounds super-depressing when that pair describes it.
* finally, here's a basic, best-practices article about stocking a graphic novels section in your bookstore. These articles are fun to read because they allow newbies to figure out some stuff and grizzled veterans to see what kind of information is assumed.
* it's pretty quiet now. There are shows in Kansas City and Palm Springs. There's Otakon, in Baltimore. Wizard World Chicago is this month, the old Chicago show out at Rosemont set in the middle of summer. It was twice a clear #2 national show. It was Wizard's first convention purchase (between those twin heydays) and I think has remained their most popular show (I think they do well with Philadelphia, too). It's diminished a bit in the same way all of the Wizard shows have diminished. They do a lot of TV and film people through there now, which was never an attraction in olden times.
* not comics: love for the Ang Lee film version of the Incredible Hulk. Everything that is interesting about the superhero movies that have been done reflect idiosyncratic directors, clever writers or thoughtful performance. It is a bad genre in which to produce a safe hit through re-shoots and heavy producing.
* that time when the most agreeable man in comics said, "No."
This Isn’t A Library: New, Notable Releases Into Comics’ Direct Market
*****
Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America.
I might not buy all of the works listed here. I might not buy any. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.
*****
JUN160408 MARCH GN BOOK 03 $19.99
I liked volume two of this series a bunch, as the stately all-ages reader faded in favor of harrowing scene after harrowing scene of people placing themselves in danger for a country that at times seemed like it might not have been worth it. I hope volume three is as good if not better. I note that Lewis' take on the civil rights struggle is one where it ended -- or at least changed -- after the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965. For those of us whose projected continuity includes 1968, that's a really interesting perspective into which to dive.
JUN160578 KILL OR BE KILLED #1 (MR) $3.99 JUN160101 BALTIMORE EMPTY GRAVES #5 $3.99 JUN161286 GIANT DAYS #17 $3.99 MAY160655 SEX #30 (MR) $3.99 AUG150551 TREES #14 (MR) $2.99 JUN160672 WALKING DEAD #157 CVR A ADLARD & STEWART (MR) $2.99
Lot of serial comics worth noting. The prince of the pile is the new Brubaker/Phillips/Breitweiser series, this time out their take on the twisted vigilante genre. I find it to be a fun comic, a bit more silly in some ways than you'd think given its dire subject matter. The next one there is the Mignola-verse book of the week, followed by the John Allison series I fear I may never catch up to in terms of reading every issue. Joe Casey and Piotr Kowalski continue to world build in Sex, making me laugh the whole time. Good chance there has never been a comic that sideways a reflection on the nature of comics. Trees is one of the Warren Ellis books of recent vintage, science fiction this time out. I enjoy reading those when I get them. I still read Walking Dead when I think of it, too. There's another war.
APR160134 BURROUGHS TARZAN COMPLETE KUBERT OMNIBUS TP $29.99
Anything Joe Kubert + Edgar Rice Burroughs I want to buy. It's kind of the easy way into Kubert's career because of those works' fairly stand-alone nature, but it's not automatically a bad thing to spend time with work whose parameters you can process over work that may have been more potent but that needs massive amounts of context to best understand. He's not the icon he used to be, but Tarzan is still pretty easy to grasp for most of us, even a thousand riffs in.
MAR160084 USAGI YOJIMBO LTD ED HC VOL 30 THIEVES AND SPIES $59.99
I don't always get the limited edition portion of publishing for creators and characters that have been published since forever, but I also love that this series has generated 30 volumes. What an accomplishment.
JUN161635 COUSIN JOSEPH HC GN $25.95
Whoa, the new Feiffer! That one snuck up on me. I like watching Jules Feiffer draw things, particularly things that might not have come to him at other points in his long and admirable career. Feiffer was a clean-background, foregrounded-figure cartoonist for such a long time to see that he has chops and the work is so visually interesting, that's remarkable.
APR161629 EC JACK DAVIS AL FELDSTEIN LIVING MUMMY HC $29.99
I love that this came out so close to Jack Davis' passing, a wink and reminder that the all-time southern gentleman of American comic book had a giant, decades-spanning career of a size and scope that's hard to fathom now, let alone recognize. I love these stand-alone EC books, and that shift to authorial presentation has helped me process the work itself without getting wrapped up in EC as a publishing entity.
JUN161502 COSPLAYERS HC DASH SHAW $22.99
I like these comics; it's sort of like watching the adult children of Enid Coleslaw and Rebecca Dopplemeyer hang out, at least spiritually, and in the sense that the bubble our protagonists build around themselves has almost no element of pushback to it. Shaw's a very interesting comics talent in terms of the choices he makes, where he spends his time, and not just what he does when he gets there.
JUN161498 GROWING UP IN PUBLIC GN $22.99 JUN161496 SPANISH FEVER TP ANTHOLOGY $29.99 APR161626 WRINKLES HC $19.99
Let the Spanish invasion begin. I honestly didn't know these books existed until they showed up on my desk yesterday. They all look interesting, and Fantagraphics being involved makes them interesting, but I'm caught unawares as I so often am these days.
JUN160996 RACHEL RISING OMNIBUS HC $75.00
Dirk Deppey always had a lot of respect for the way Terry Moore negotiated the bookstore market, and one imagines a giant version of Rachel Rising is being done not for some perceived outcome but in spite of it.
MAY161830 ALTER EGO #142 $8.95 APR161335 BLEEDING COOL MAGAZINE #23 (MR) $5.99 APR162002 JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #68 $10.95
Here are three magazines you might have found on my desk at Fantagraphics 23 years ago. Not the actual magazines -- none of them existed unless you count Alter Ego's first run -- but the idea of magazines. We're now in an on-line era where information is becoming more and more compressed, where there's no publishing moment to hold things accountable. I tweet obituaries now. Hell, there's nothing out there keeping me from asserting I was working at Fantagraphics 23 years ago, when I didn't get there until a year later. It's crazy. In conclusion, I miss magazines, and I bet you do, too.
MAY162026 ART OF THE STORY ELFQUEST HC $50.00 MAY162030 FRANK MILLERS DAREDEVIL & ENDS OF HEROISM SC $27.95 DEC151372 NEXUS CHRONICLES HC (RES) $50.00
You can take the 1982 out of the shop, but you can't take the shop too far out of 1982. Although, you know, if I'm being honest, I think 35-40 years is an amazing and impressive run of interest in any one creative expression. It's only things like Superman that screw things up and make us feel everything is going to last 100 years. We should be letting our late 1970s fantasy book do a valedictory run complete with art book, or having academics figure out why Daredevil worked in the continuity of like comics, or publishing Nexus in a way that is similar to what was being done with Prince Valiant in the 1990s.
DEC151324 MEAT CAKE BIBLE HC $49.99
Dame Darcy for President. Okay, "Dame Darcy" for president is my way of finishing a post when I'm falling asleep at my computer, and she deserves better. Burn away all the public personality stuff -- which I think is a blast, but bear with me here -- and what you have left is densely illustrated, well-conceived and routinely funny comics drawing from traditions that aren't boys-adventure, that validate a whole different set of concerns than fighting and lofty hard-man ideals. The book looks great and if these things matter to you, you won't find a book with which you'll spend more time per page this summer or next. There's a smart theory out there that cartoonists like Dame Darcy don't get the credit they're due because their emergence and influence doesn't fit a popular narrative about when and from where significant comics by women artists started to catch fire. That sounds like a theory to me, and I think also with the Dame there's an element that her work is so idiosyncratic and layered it's just hard to enter into this world. You won't regret trying.
*****
The full list of this week's releases, including some titles with multiple cover variations and a long, impressive list of toys and other stuff that isn't comics, can be found here. Despite this official list there's no guarantee a comic will show up in the stores as promised, or in all of the stores as opposed to just a few. Also, stores choose what they carry and don't carry so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.
To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, try this.
The above titles are listed with their Diamond order code in the first field, which may assist you in finding comics at your shop or having them order something for you they don't have in-stock. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.
If I failed to list your comic, that's because I hate you.
* not comics: it's hard for me to imagine how my brain would be wired differently if I had access to visually organized sites like this one when I was a lad.
* comics-conversant author Glen Weldon is speaking at the house named after the comics-conversant writer James Thurber.
* here's a depressing article about assumptions made what I'm sure are friendly people that didn't know they were being hurtful. Just don't assume anything about anyone, especially your fellow geeks.
* how to capitalize on a potentially successful movie with greater sales of a comic book usually just means having the comic fall in the same, rough ballpark as the movie version and then be of at least recognizably decent quality. I'm always amazed how many brand-new, individual DC Comics efforts look like similar comics from up to 20 years ago.
Go, Watch: Wilkinson, Sorensen, Telnaes Talk About Clinton
Here's one of the few things we'll get to experience this year that we can seriously argue was made better by the national election.
How to depict a presidential candidate has driven the writing of about 16,000 articles in the last 40 years, and a cliched version of the same was certainly going to be written this time around. In 2016, however, Hillary Clinton is running for that office as one of the main two nominees, so this Huffington Post thing gathers three very talented editorial cartoonists that happen to be women to discuss the issues involved in her depiction. Rote article + historical twist = a story of much greater interest.
This Is The Last Time I Write About Scott Adams’ Bizarre Outbursts About Election Politics Here's the latest. This was an idea that got floated in 2008 by my more liberal friends, including some in comics, who swore the Republican Party wouldn't allow Barack Obama to become president. It was dumb then, it's dumb now, and more to the point there's no practical use in positing doomsday scenarios even if one day one of them might become true. Mostly, It's cruel to amplify this kind of acting out.
I think the way we talk about stuff matters. It seems to me, and I could be horribly wrong, that if you spend an entire generation making arguments through strident declaration and finessed truth eventually you get a reality that mimics the image you've been projecting onto it. When everyone is so certain about everything that being confronted with facts or a different point of view is an occasion to double-down or shift the argument onto friendlier grounds or retreat to a discussion about a right to have an opinion when it's only the opinion and not the right to it that's being challenged, it's hard to dismantle the use of these techniques when they are employed in support of banality, exploitation and harm.
If you can't risk having your mind changed, you're likely not going to get anyone else to do so, either. And so we limp on. Much of what we have as a result is noise, and nothing about any of it is funny.
Festivals Extra: I Went To Wizard World Last Weekend
I attended Wizard World Columbus last weekend. I hadn't been to a Wizard show since attending the first Chicago show right after they purchased it: their first show. That move saved the Chicago/Rosemont show from extinction, as I recall, and was the basis for Wizard getting into the convention business during the late afternoon of their magazine-collectibles glory years. At one point, Wizard's Chicago effort was a strong #2 US convention and Wizard was circling New York like the city that never sleeps was so much chum in the water. Reed got that show; the magazine collapsed; history set off in a different direction. Wizard's convention business has since those days become essentially a traveling show heavy on the pop-culture celebrities and lighter and lighter it seems on name comics-makers. The company is a totally different entity underneath it; the convention business is all that remains. I wondered out loud several times over the weekend if the only people at both the first show and this one were myself and Nichelle Nichols.
Danny Fingeroth was nice enough to gift Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) a table as part of his wider mandate to throw a spotlight on local events and comics-makers about which and whom he feels the Wizard audience should know. He also gave us a panel where I could talk about Columbus as a comics destination -- a speech I've been dying to try out in public. Jared Gardner from OSU was supposed to join me but could not make it. We had about 12-15 people, which I figure is pretty good for a show with such devoted fannish interests. I stepped in for Gardner on a later panel about Harvey Pekar and no one showed. They missed Fingeroth and I up at the podium slinging industry gossip like old pros, and not talking much about Pekar at all. Fingeroth does have a great story about Pekar being accidentally booked into a youth hostel near the end of his career that's worth asking him to tell if you see him.
I don't know what to make of the show. It's basically paying money to shop, and then more money if you want a moment -- recorded by a photo or an autograph -- with one of the name celebrities. I find that sad, but I don't really get to vote on what people want to do with their money or what they value and to what degree. As far as the celebrities in question, Kevin Sorbo was supposedly there, in addition to a few wrestlers too young for me to know and a few supporting actors on TV shows I didn't watch at the time. Some of the attendees I met were genuinely excited to be there, including a much higher percentage of people in costume than at San Diego now. (The best one was someone playing this guy.) Some had driven hours. A lot of older comics fans were there, I suspect from years of having gone to Mid-Ohio Con, which Wizard took over and turned into this one. Mid-Ohio Con was once a successful, comics-focused show that was arguably a top five or six US show at one time. I'm not sure why I'm obsessed with arbitrary rankings for this article. Must be the Wizard influence.
There was a lot of gaming things there. There were maybe about a half-dozen collectible comics people, including one with an impressive array of Eros Comix. The show had an artist's alley that included James O'Barr, Fingeroth, Columbus publisher Legacy Rising and Darryl Banks. One of our booth crew, Neil Cameron, found discounted Brian Bendis trades and a cheap run of Larry Stroman-era X-Factor comics. A CXC board member that helped out was able to check out what her cosplaying daughters were up to. Raina, Sergio and Jeff Smith were popular guests to mention in conversation. People were impressed that our festival was free. I think we put it into some heads, who knows?
You learn something at every show. I really liked the trashcans.
One bit of news at the show was that it being scheduled the weekend between San Diego Con and Wizard's Chicago show, and the Wizard tour's interest in Cleveland, together marked what might be the last show for the Columbus area from this group. Wizard spokesman Jerry Milani told CR yesterday when asked, "We are reviewing available potential dates for 2017 and will update on our web site when resolved." In PR speak that's basically a denial with wiggle room to go back in the direction of the rumor if necessary, which I suppose is the best that can be expected maybe ever in these convention-crowded times. It's year to year for most of us now.
If this is it for Wizard, I think someone would find a willing audience if they put on an Emerald City/HeroesCon type event here in Columbus, perhaps under the old name. The crowds were miserable on Friday and only okay on Sunday, but that Saturday crowd was genuinely bustling, even if there wasn't a whole lot right on hand to get them excited after purchases were made -- at least not to my old-con eyes; I'm sure others would disagree.
Wizard World is the kind of show with multiple weapon-makers, a booth that sold "mystery boxes," I believe not one but two recruiting stations and at least one just straight-up jeweler. It felt like the old Shipshewana outdoor flea market I used to attend in the 1970s, just inside, no Amish and booths instead of winnebagos. It did make me stop and reflect how excited my geek friends and I used to get visiting a Holiday Inn comics show with no programming, maybe eight back-issue dealers in a room the size of a standard living room where we might be able to put together a run of "Panther's Rage" or whatever. This was more than that, and somehow felt less. That's nostalgia talking, and it's a wonder we heard its voice at all over the low murmur of baseline commerce.
Also, at my first mainstream show behind a table since San Diego '95, I don't know what the heck anyone did at shows before phones with screens. I really don't. Thank you, Mother Box. Long may you reign.
* writer Chip Zdarsky -- also a working comics artist -- has painted a variant cover for his final issue on Marvel's Howard The Duck character. I think Marvel's line works better when that title is being published by them, the same way "Doom Patrol" seems to work within the DC line. That said, it's hard to imagine anyone at Marvel right now being allowed to cut loose in a way that might make for comics in the same neighborhood as the 1970s work done by writer Steve Gerber and a few, select artists.
You can read about the cartoonist getting a special day here; it's one of the more fun cartoonist wikipedia pages, too. I haven't seen a ton of the artwork, but what I have -- like the above image -- looks really cool.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts native was a versatile cartoonist and an early adopter of manga-related artistic practices and tropes. He is also one of the intriguing of early alternative comics publishing, and can be argued to have been in that early group of graphic novel makers that kind of established that entire form.
* Hunter Gorinson 
* Andy Oliver on 
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* Steve Bissette 
The top comics-related news stories from August 20 to August 26, 2016:
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The top comics-related news stories from August 13 to August 19, 2016:
* Shaenon Garrity is going to read/experience and 
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* 
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The top comics-related news stories from August 6 to August 12, 2016:
* 
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Institutional
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* kudos to Gabrielle Bell for 
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* let's throw it over to 
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* Todd Klein on 
Danny Fingeroth was nice enough to gift Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) a table as part of his wider mandate to throw a spotlight on local events and comics-makers about which and whom he feels the Wizard audience should know. He also gave us a panel where I could talk about Columbus as a comics destination -- a speech I've been dying to try out in public. Jared Gardner from OSU was supposed to join me but could not make it. We had about 12-15 people, which I figure is pretty good for a show with such devoted fannish interests. I stepped in for Gardner on a later panel about Harvey Pekar and no one showed. They missed Fingeroth and I up at the podium slinging industry gossip like old pros, and not talking much about Pekar at all. Fingeroth does have a great story about Pekar being accidentally booked into a youth hostel near the end of his career that's worth asking him to tell if you see him.
* writer Chip Zdarsky -- also a working comics artist -- 
